Oklahoma City Thunder notebook: Thunder squanders shot at first place

A win Monday night in San Antonio would have put the Thunder in first place in the Western Conference standings.

Instead, the 105-93 loss dropped the Thunder two games back.

Oklahoma City Thunder's Serge Ibaka (9), of Congo, falls as he chases the ball between San Antonio Spurs' Tim Duncan, right, Boris Diaw, bottom, of France, and Cory Joseph during the second half of an NBA basketball game, Monday, March 11, 2013, in San Antonio. San Antonio won 105-93. (AP Photo/Darren Abate) ORG XMIT: TXDA107

“There's for sure disappointment that we weren't able to take advantage of this opportunity to come in and game another game in the standings,” said Derek Fisher, “strengthen our position and possibly have home-court (advantage) throughout the Western Conference and at some point maybe the entire way through the playoffs.”

The Thunder still has 18 games left to catch the Spurs, including the final head-to-head meeting in Oklahoma City on April 4.

“We don't go day to day and say, ‘Guys, we got to get the No. 1 seed,” said Thunder coach Scott Brooks. “We know that you have to play well to win a playoff series and you're going to have to win on the road to win a series a lot of times and we did it last year … So we just want to play better. Hopefully, we will continue to have good fortune with health and we just want to play good basketball come playoff time. We got a lot of basketball left before that happens.”

NO ALTERNATES AFTER ALL

Monday's game against San Antonio was scheduled to be the Thunder's 10th time wearing its alternate uniforms.

Oklahoma City instead wore its customary road uniforms.

The schedule of the uniforms had always been subject to change, and a team official said the Thunder likely will wear the uniforms at a different date.

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